Holder



' July 29, 1941. y E. w. KRAUTER HOLISER Filed Jan. 29, 1940 um um Patented July 29, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE HOLDER Edwin W. Krauter, Highland Park, lll. Application January 29, 1940, serial No. 316,151

4 Claims.

This invention is directed to new and useful improvements in holders for characters and is particularly directed to such holders for readily and accurately assembling a plurality of characters appearing on individual ,strips for the purpose of photographing the desired combination of characters and which holders will permit the easy and rapid disassembling of the characters without injury to the holder or the characters.

More specifically this invention is directed to holders awed to hold a plurality of transparent flexible am upon each of which is an opaque character, generally a letter, for the purpose of reproducing photographically the combination of characters or letters. A font of such characters is provided and from such font is selected the desired characters to make up a desired word or symbol. The characters are then assembled in the desired combination and are photographed. Only the opaque characters appear in the resultant photograph so that the desired word or symbol is secured for Whatever use desired. Such a method of reproducing lettering is more fully shown and described in my United States Letters 25 Patent No. 2,165,861.

It is apparent that in practicing such a method it is essential that the transparencies bearing the characters may be rapidly assembled on the I 0, ing the characters.

holder in the desired position and combination, will be held in the arranged position and may be quickly removed for replacement in the font without injury.

Broadly the holder, the subject of this invention, comprises a base, adhesive, gummy substance located on the base so that the ends of the flexible strips bearing the characters will be removably held thereby in position and means for accurately guiding the assembly of the characters.

The primary object of this invention is to provide a holder for characters appearing on flexible strips that will permit the rapid assembly of a plurality of such strips thereon in contiguous or overlapped arrangement, will hold them in the desired assembled relation and will permit their rapid removal without injury.

Another object of this invention is to provide such a holder with removable guide means for facilitating the desired assembly of the characters.

Still another object is to provide such a holder adapted for use in photographing the assembled characters with the use of either reflected or direct lighting means.

(Cl. l-1) A further object is to provide such a. holder of simple and inexpensive construction.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a holder embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

l0 Fig. 3 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, partially broken away, showing still another embodiment of the invention.

Fig. 5 is likewise a perspective view of another form of the invention.

In detail, I indicates the base of the holder which, as shown in Fig. 1, is made of glass or similar transparent material; Two shallow channels 2 are formed in the upper face of the j base I adjacent the side edges and into these channels is poured or positioned a glutinous, tacky substance 3, such, for example, as hectograph gelatin which extends slightly above the upper surface of base I, as clearly indicated in Fig. 2. This sticky substance must be of such a kind that will not permanently hold the transparencies, will maintain its own shape, will not separate but will temporarily grip the strips bear- The channels 2 guide the positioning of the adhesive and aiord a means for anchoring it to the base. Hectograph gelatin liquefies upon heating and is readily so positioned. It is a well known substance and comprises gelatin and glycerine in about one to eight proportions, respectively. A thin lined guide card 4 of a width slightly less than the distance between the two ridges of adhesive and preferably of greater length than the base is positioned on the upper surface of base I between the raised p strips of adhesive. It will be seen that the height of the strips of adhesive above the top surface of the base is slightly greater than the thickness of the guide card 4. The transparencies 5 bearing the opaque characters are preferably longer than the width of the base I to facilitate assembling and removing. 'I'hey are positioned across the two ridges of adhesive in the desired position, the guide card 4 facilitating their relative arrangement. Those strips bearing characters W and E, respectively, are contiguous while those bearing a, r and e," respectively, are overlapping to form the script word are. The strip bearing r partially overlaps the a strip and the e strip partially overlaps the r strip.

When they have been assembled the guide card 4 is removed by sliding it out from between the transparencies and the base and the characters may then be photographed with the light coming directly through the transparent base towards the camera. The characters on the transparent strips 5 will be shown in silhouette and will give in the photograph the desired result. Due to the nature of Jthe adhesive used the strips may be quickly removed from the holder and replaced in their font for further use without injury either to the transparencies or the strips of adhesive.

If it is desired to photograph the assembled characters by reflected light rather than direct light a card having the necessary reflecting color or quality can be inserted in place of the guide card or the guide card itself may be formed with a reflecting surface and left in place and the guide lines may be obliterated in the photography or developing.

In order to accurately position the characters on the holder, which is essential in the formation of good lettering, the guide lines must be in close proximity to the characters. This is made possible in the holder embodying this invention, as above described. It is entirely unsatisfactory to place guide lines below the base because of the thickness of the base and the light refraction through the glass.

Another form of the invention is shown in Fig. 3 in which the base of the holder is indicated by reference character 6. The adhesive substance in this embodiment is in the form of a sticky tape 1, such as for example photographic tape of common commercial kind that is provided on one side with a tacky surface. This tape is positioned adjacent the sides of the base 6 on its upper surface with the tacky side of the tape up. It is so held in position by thin strips 8 of similar tape positioned along the edges of tape 1 with tacky side down to adhere to the base and the tape'I` In the drawing, Fig. 3, the thickness of the tapes 1 and 8 is exaggerated somewhat for the purpose of clarity but it is clear that this construction provides substantially smooth adhesive surfaces adjacent each side of the base, which surfaces are slightly raised above the top surface of the base to permit a thin guide card, such as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 to be positioned therebetween withthe base 9 is formed of fibrous composition, the u top surface of which is entirely coated with a layer of gummy, tacky substance I0, such as hereinabove described. The edges of the base are CII covered by tape I I which overlaps the top surface of the gelatinous substance Il to aid in holding it on the base and facilitate handling of the holder. A lined guide card I 2 is positioned on the gummy surface midway between the sides of the base and is held in position by the adhesive quality of the substance I0, Card I2 is opaque and its upper surface is of the necessary color and quality to form a background for the opaque characters to be positioned on the holder so that they may be photographed with the use of re- Ilected light.

Fig. 5 illustrates a simple form of holder ernbodying this invention that may be utilized under some circumstances. The base I3 is formed of a transparent or opaque composition, such as Celluloid, and is much thinner than the bases heretofore described. At its upper surface, adjacent each side, are positioned strips of adhesive tape I4, of a type available at photographic stores, which has adhesive on each side. The adhesive on the lower side secures the strips to the base and the tacky substance on the upper surface provides temporary holding means for the transparencies. When the base I3 is constructed of opaque material, the characters must be photographed by reflected light but when formed of transparent material direct light may be used. In the latter case, the holder may be placed on a guide card and, due to the thinness of the base, fairly accurate assembling may be obtained.

I claim:

1. A holder comprising a rigid transparent base, channels in the upper surface of said base running lengthwise thereof adjacent the sides, and gelatinous adhesive substance positioned in said channels and extending above the upper surface of the base.

2. A holder comprising a transparent base, strips of adhesive substance on the base extending lengthwise adjacent its sides and a slidably removable guide card positioned between said strips.

3. A holder assembly comprising a rigid base, strips of adhesive on the base adjacent each side, strips bearing characters extending across thc adhesive strips and held to the base therebyand a slidably removable guide card positioned on the base between the adhesive strips and beneath the character bearing strips.

4. A holder assembly comprising a transparent base, strips of adhesive on the base adjacent each side, character bearing strips extending across the adhesive strips and removably held thereby to the base and a guide card positioned between the adhesive strips and beneath the character bearing strips and slidably removable therefrom.

EDWIN W. KRAUTER. 

